Blog Post 3

The collaboration between Tim Rollins and KOS because, there was a common ground they both emerged from. There was a sense of revenge coming through from the art the kids produced. “The kids of survival have empowered themselves even though society had already decided to leave them out—as poor people, as young people, as Black and Latino people, as artists “(169). Although there are similarities when it comes so socio economic statuses among Rollins and KOS, I believe the main reason why the collaboration was so successful is much bigger than that. There is a vision that is shared by the two. There was a desire to want to make history. “KOS is not tied to any one style, and some of their work is abstract, one of their favorite painters is the “Black Monk” Ad Reinhardt, whose monochrome paintings are considered conceptually “difficult” in the highest ivory tower” (168). I think this blending of diversity caused Tim Rollins and KOS to flourish in the art world. “Rollins developed a method of making collaborative art works that linked the lives and environments’ of the students with reading from daily newspapers to T.S Eliot’s The Wasteland , to comics to Frankenstein, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alice in wonderland, Moby dick and so forth” (168). I think the push out of a particular comfort zone caused an element of surprise and coming together between the two. For the KOS this was through relating yourself to a current event through art, something they probably thought they never could do. But art created the link between each individual and what was happening in the world. This must have been a very rich experience for Rollins as well since he was working with kids he did not necessarily identify with racially. I think it was a learning experience for both. And can most definitely be a successful in other arenas.